OTTAWA — OC Transpo is finally using crime analysis tools to improve safety on buses, according to a security update presented to transit commission members Wednesday.

By compiling incident reports from the past two years and for any new incidents that may occur, the transit provider aims to identify trends in criminal activity as a way to more efficiently deploy special constables who do the bulk of police work throughout the system.

Moving ahead with this type of analysis puts Ottawa on par with other major cities that already use sophisticated analysis programs to identify trends and hot spots for crime throughout their transit systems.

Transpo general manager John Manconi, who made the announcement Wednesday, confirmed his staff have added nearly 20,000 incidents from 2013 into a database and are now working on more than 22,000 incidents from 2012.

“This is a cumbersome manual process, but it needs to be completed and it will be completed,” he told the commission. “We will use this data to develop strategies for deployment, enforcement and blitzes.”

Manconi and his staff have taken criticism in recent months for not looking at assault data to deter some of the violence occurring on buses and at transit stops.

Women’s advocacy groups chastized OC Transpo just last month for not looking at harassment and assault data on transit despite concerns from those groups regarding the safety of women. At the time, a Citizen analysis of 2013 reports showed that 74 of 108 assaults and harassment incidents were committed by men. Of those, nearly half were against women.

The data also showed the violence is often occurring in broad daylight and that Blair and Billings stations had the highest number of incidents.

Transpo security chief James Babe said Wednesday that his staff is also recording the latest incident reports to build the database.

This slow process will get much easier once Transpo invests in new crime analysis tools. It has been talking about adopting computer software that allows constables to input incident reports directly into a database since last summer when the 10-point safety plan was first announced.

Manconi said Wednesday that Ottawa police have also committed to letting one of their crime analysts crunch the numbers once the system is up and running. Ideally, this information will be available to the public through a Transpo website.

Manconi also said his staff received positive feedback for other transit safety improvements, including the safe stop program, which allows passengers to get off before or after their stop so they can arrive closer to their destination after 7 p.m.

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